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Saturday, October 19, 2013

‘Digital Surveillance’ Vs ‘Right to Privacy’ in Ethiopia

Ethiopia’s
constitution is one of the world’s generous constitutions in giving rights. It
gives ‘the nations, nationalities and peoples the right to self determination
to secession.’ So, it is no wonder that it gives the ultimate right for freedom
of expression and the right to privacy. However, the question is that ‘are the
rights granted on the constitution applicable in reality?’

It is universally
true that rights are always granted with restrictions. These restrictions are
applied usually for ‘national security issues’ or even to protect the well
being of certain society members and also in cases where the right conflicts
with other rights. For example, the right for freedom of expression should not
exceed the right to privacy and leave individuals in physical and psychological
insecurity. In consideration of this, I have been challenging myself to answer
the question ‘is Ethiopia over writing constitutional rights for one of these
reasons or just to protect the power of its rulers?’

Article 29 of the
constitution in its sub article 2, gives the right to ‘everyone’ to express
him/herself without interference. “This right shall include freedom to seek,
receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers,
either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any media
of his choice.” On sub article 3/a, it approves the prohibition of any form of
censorship; on sub article 3/b, that citizens have the freedom to access information
of public interest.

There is also
article 26 of the constitution which gives the people the right to privacy.
Section 2 of this article reads:

“Everyone has the right to the
inviolability of his notes and correspondence including postal letters, and
communications made by means of telephone, telecommunications and electronic
devices.”

I will forward three major problems to make my point.

Problem #1:

All
Proclamations are NOT constituted in the Constitution

In Ethiopia, the
government bothers little to listen to alternative voices of the people before
passing bills. Among these bills are there the infamous Anti-Terrorism
Proclamation No. 652/2009 and others were passed in the same way without giving
the people a chance to reflect on the draft to recommend improvements on how it
can protect the country from danger of any kind without violating rights of the
people.

Article 14/1/a of
the Anti-Terrorism proclamation reads as:

“[upon getting court warrant, National
Intelligence and Security Office may] intercept or conduct surveillance on the
telephone, fax, radio, Internet, electronic, postal and similar communications
of a person suspected of terrorism”. This grants National Intelligence and
Security officials, who are more concerned about protecting power than the
people, the ultimate right to violate the right to privacy of citizens
especially the dissidents.

Similarly, the Telecom
Fraud Offence No. 761/2012 in its article 14 gives Police the right “for covert
search” upon court warrant where among others the Police “has reasonable ground
that a telecom fraud is likely to be committed.”

We may think this
contradiction between the proclamations and the constitution is OK for the sake
of the big picture – which is ‘National Security’. But, we know it is not OK
when we learn about who the victims are. According to Article 19's Ethiopia
submission to the Universal Periodic Review, 12 journalists are prosecuted
in relation to “terrorism act” since the proclamation was passed in 2009. To
mention a few among these convicted journalists:

Eskinder Nega – is blogger who is convicted
and is serving 18 years of imprisonment in Kality;

Abiy Tekelemariam and Mesfin Negash – are editors ofaddisnegeronline.com and are sentenced 8 years of imprisonment in
absentia;

Abebe Belew – is a journalist on an
internet based radio called Addis Dimts. He is convicted of “terrorism”
and sentenced in absentia;

These are not the
only ones who were convicted on their activities on the cyber; there are also
other journalists on whom digital information were presented as “evidences of
crime” against them. Reeyot Alemu, a young woman journalist and a teacher who is convicted of “supporting terrorism” is now serving her
imprisonment in Kality. She was accused for reporting to ethiopianreview.com,
US based website whose owner is also convicted in “terrorism.” Among the
“evidences” presented against Reeyot Alemu, there was a picture that she was
tagged in a facebook status by a facebook friend she doesn’t recognize in
person.

In the same way, Wubshet
Taye, editor-in-chief of Awramba Times - currently defunct newspaper, is serving
14 years of imprisonment in Zeway, is also convicted of “terrorism” acts. Among
witnesses presented against him included a phone conversation he had. The
conversation was about the suit color choices on which he was supposed to wear
as a best man for a wedding of his best friend but it was interpreted as “code”
by police.

PROBLEM #2:
Why Filter the ‘Worst Penetration’?

In 2012, Open Net
Initiative, called the Ethiopian internet penetration as the 2nd lowest penetration
in Sub-Saharan Africa; however, having this lowest penetration, Ethiopia,
instead of encouraging the connectivity, it is discouraging it. Ethiopia is
listed as “Not Free” in both 2012 and 2013 reports of Freedom on the net 2013
that Freedom House is sponsoring.

Since 2006,
following the controversial Ethiopian election of 2005, Ethiopia blocked news
websites – some of these are operating locally (e.g. website the former ‘Fitih’
newspaper), opposition parties’ and affiliated entities’ websites, individual
blogs, audio-video tubes and many others from being accessed in the country. Websites
of Aljeezira, CNN, Economist and and IMF are among internationally recognized
websites that were blocked and again unblocked in Ethiopia when the sensation
of the news or story they published dies. My comment is that, if Aljazeera, CNN
and Economist were Ethiopian media houses, their journalists would either exile
or get imprisoned and the media houses would eventually shut down.

PROBLEM #3:

The
Surveillance is More Sophisticated than What the Internet can Offer

Security
researchers of Rapid7, an international security firm, scanned the Internet in
2012 for finFisher – internet surveillance software and discovered IP addresses
of only 11 countries among which Ethiopia is one.

In February 2013,
Citizen Lab – a research organization on the area, found that ‘a
finSpy campaign in Ethiopia uses Ginbot 7 as bait to infect users.’ Ginbot
7 is a “terrorist group” according to Ethiopia and infected pictures with
spyware of its leader, Dr. Birhanu Nega, were released on social networks to
spy cyber activities of citizens who might download those pictures.

Ethiopia accepts
universal conventions of Human Rights; its constitution provides the right for
freedom of expression and the right to privacy. The problem is that the law
provisions contradict the constitution and even if they don’t, they will be
interpreted in a way they are used against journalists and innocent dissent citizens
and on behalf of power.

In conclusion: Ethiopia MAYBE doing well in economic progresses; but it
is NOT doing ANYTHING at all in human and democratic rights.

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About Me

This blog is run by a writer and democracy activist BefeQadu Z Hailu - an MIS expert by profession and a writer by inclination. BefeQadu worked as Knowledge Management Expert in St. Mary's University; Production Manager for an outsourced program in FM 96.3; Managing Editor of Enqu Magazine; Editor in Chief of Weyeyet Magazine; Volunteering Editor of Global Voices [in AM]; co-founder and blogger at @Zone9ners. BefeQadu has published an award winning novella, ‘Children of Their Parents’, in 2012. Also, he won multiple awards, along with his Zone 9 Blogging Collective colleagues, including CPJ's Press Freedom Award in 2015. BefeQadu has been jailed four times for blogging and activism practices. Follow him on Twitter @befeqe; Facebook.com/befeqez
Website: befeqe.blogspot.com